PRESENTATION OUTLINE
Misconceptions
- That we experience seasons because of the Earth's changing distance from the Sun (closer in the summer, farther in the winter), instead of understanding that Earth’s orbit around the Sun is almost a perfect circle.
Misconceptions
2. That the Sun rises exactly in the east and sets exactly in the west every day (rather than rising in the southeast in winter and northeast in summer, and setting in the southwest in winter and northwest in summer).
Misconceptions
3. That the Earth is the center of the solar system (or that the planets, Sun and Moon revolve around the Earth), instead of the Sun as the center of the solar system.
Earth spins on it's axis. The axis, as you all may know is an imaginary line running through the middle of the Earth. Earth's axis isn't completely straight up and down though. It is tilted 23.5 degrees. That is one of the main reasons that we get seasons. As we spin on our axis, different sides face the sun more directly. The reason summer happens is because the part of the world we are in is faced more directly to the sun, causing the Earth to heat. A common misconception is that we get closer to the sun. That is not the case. We get more or less indirect sunlight because of the spinning and tilt of Earth's rotation.
Earth's orbit is the path in which the Earth travels around the Sun. Earth lies at an average distance of 149.59787 million kilometers (93 million miles) from the Sun[1] and a complete orbit occurs every 365.256 days (1 sidereal year), during which time Earth travels 940 million kilometers (584 million miles).[2] Earth's orbit has an eccentricity of 0.0167. Earth's orbital motion gives an apparent movement of the Sun with respect to other stars at a rate of about 1° per day (or a Sun or Moon diameter every 12 hours) eastward as seen from Earth.[nb 1] Earth's orbital speed averages about 30 km/s (67,000 mph), which is fast enough to cover the planet's diameter in seven minutes and the distance to the Moon in four hours.[3]
